


Birth of the Gempire

by NonaWax



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gem history, Gen, crystal basilisk mentioned, crystal shrimp mentioned, gem creation, sentient plants mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22589908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NonaWax/pseuds/NonaWax
Summary: The liquid used to create gems is like a slew of nanobots. Before gems, it was a symbiotic species that used organics to frame itself.Thought Process/Evidence: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xiw_lquPzOFhj1n2rZHn8h0cYmiIimZfyGnzvk1nSfE/edit?usp=drivesdk
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Birth of the Gempire

**Author's Note:**

> I named it that because it means "glittering liquid" in latin. Runner up was "liyong," which roughly means "to take advantage of" in Chinese, the language gem glyph is based off of. I'm bad at names, heh.

Gems are created by injecting a liquid created by the diamonds a few feet into the dirt. Before that, the liquid is given the programming to create a certain class of gem by a kindergartener. The liquid itself is almost like a slew of nanobots- pretty robotic and inorganic in nature, but in comes a chicken and egg problem: who created the first drop? The answer is just a little closer to “no one.”

In the beginning, the liquid formally used to create gems was a microscopic species. We’ll call them “Micansumor.” They were unique in that they could manipulate light. They were also extremely versatile, and survived by copying everything that came into contact with them. Generally, they stuck together and had an impressive amount of “teamwork,” and were adept at manipulating their environment. They don't seem capable of reproducing on their own.

So they were a symbiotic species. They spread themselves throughout other creatures and used them to become new beings. They became more and more effective at mutating creatures to their benefit. Many lesser creatures, even if they were originally of different species, ended up looking very similar to each other; this was how Micansumor evolved. Ultimately organics only served as their frame. Animal-like creatures became colorful, lived longer, and had strange properties. As Micansumor continued to evolve creatures became more like the multiple crystal species we have in the present: the moss with crystals in their bloom, sparkly and aptly named crystal basilisks and shrimp with crystals protruding from their backs. It is possible these common crystal protrusions were sources of energy at some point.

It might be possible evidence of Micansumor's early life exists in corrupted gems. Similar to normal gems, corrupted gems of the same type look very similar. How can this be? It's unlikely Yellow diamond's song told them in groups to be what they became; more likely it denied them of access to the typical gem image, leaving them to make a "new" one. If their form changed only as a reflection of their mentality, such wild and drastic changes would not be consistently the same across gems of the same type, or at least their gem placement would be unaffected. These forms must have existed somewhere in the gem code before corruption, and it's unlikely they were coded in by kindergarteners.

Eventually, Micansumor was able to react to something inorganic, and the first gem was created. It may have been a pebble, or a clod, or maybe even something shiny- but one thing was for certain: it was small. Exactly how it came to be is hard to say- the possibilities range from being as simple as a drop from a salivating animal, or purposely created by an infected plant race. Although something like that might be more remembered than the sun and moon goddesses gems had in Era 1, perhaps organics on the planet were pushed to extinction early on, their relations to gems going unnoted. 

The hardiness of gems as well as not needing to eat gave them a great advantage- after they learned how to reproduce, they quickly became a rather dominant species. From then on, since there were no more objective threats, gem production was all about attractive or valuable traits in the subjective sense. They started making bigger and better gems, though their forms were still mostly solid- relatively unrepairable if they were ever damaged. Interested in perfecting their race, they selected gems with more light based forms to make more of themselves. Around this point, they began to celebrate the moon(s) and the sun. Other abilities also began to manifest amongst certain gems. Weaker gems were finding themselves neglected. Gem kind was a mixed bag- not being particularly specialized to a purpose, and their colors not being particularly potent. They began distancing themselves from each other, unable to decide on what abilities were most valuable. Their technology and understanding of their race continued to grow until they decided to work on their society- already valuing gems with potent colors and size, those were the elements they decided to put into their great leaders.

They were already looking into colonization of space when they created the diamonds. Blue and Yellow were the first- soon after, White and Pink were created with more complicated cuts. And so, Era 1 began.


End file.
